Fetch Cambridge: A Booking and Management System for a Dog Walking Company

Fetch Cambridge is a professional dog walking company in Cambridge, UK. Running a dog walking business means juggling a lot at once: regular clients with walks every week, a team of walkers with their own schedules, one-off bookings, and payments to keep track of.

Fetch Cambridge came to us with an existing system that they had outgrown. We designed and built a new platform that brings their website, bookings, scheduling and payments together in one place.

The challenge

The old system could no longer keep up with how the business worked day to day. Fetch Cambridge needed a single platform that could:

• let clients book walks online instead of arranging everything manually
• handle recurring walks, the regular weekly bookings that most of a dog walking business depends on
• give the team a clear view of who is walking which dog, and when
• keep client and dog details organised
• take payments online

It also had to work for three very different groups of people: the business owners running it, the walkers out on the road, and the dog owners booking walks.

What we built

We built a custom web application with a public website and a secure login for each type of user.

For clients (dog owners)

• Online booking of walks, including recurring bookings
• A profile for their account and their dogs
• Online payments through PayPal
• Notifications about their bookings

For dog walkers

• Their own login showing the walks assigned to them
• Notifications when their schedule changes

For admins

• Full booking management in one dashboard
• Scheduling walks and assigning them to walkers
• Client and dog profiles
• Invoicing and payment tracking
• Notifications to keep clients and walkers up to date

The public website and the management system are part of the same build, so new clients can go from reading about the service to booking a walk without leaving the site.

The hardest part: recurring walks and booking management

Most of a dog walking company's work is repeat business. The same dog is walked every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, for months. That sounds simple, but a booking system has to deal with what happens around it:

• a client cancels or moves a single walk without changing the rest of the schedule
• a walker is unavailable and their walks need reassigning
• new one-off bookings have to fit around the recurring ones
• payments and invoices need to match the walks that actually happened

We designed the booking model around recurring walks from the start, rather than treating them as a series of separate one-off bookings. This keeps the schedule accurate when things change, and makes the admin view much easier to manage.

Technology

• Next.js for the website and web application, in one fast, SEO-friendly codebase
• MongoDB for bookings, clients, dogs, walkers and schedules
• PayPal integration for online payments

The project took around five months from start to launch.

The result

• Bookings now come in online, so clients can book walks themselves rather than arranging them manually
• Day-to-day management is easier: bookings, recurring walks, walker schedules, client details and payments are all in one place
• The website and booking system work together, giving Fetch Cambridge a professional online presence that turns visitors into bookings

Fetch Cambridge was happy with the new platform, and we continue to work with them on improvements and new features as the business grows.

Building something similar?

If you run a service business that depends on bookings, schedules and repeat customers, such as dog walking, pet care, cleaning, tutoring or coaching, a system built around how you actually work can take a lot of the admin off your plate. Tell us about your project and we'll get back to you with a free design.